Albert Pujols

Maybe Cal Ripken, Ken Griffey Jr., Albert Pujols, Greg Maddux, Rickey Henderson-maybe they all were cheaters.

If Bud Selig had the testicular fortitude to draw a line in the sand, he would have done so by now. Pete Rose is banished from the game for betting on his team to win games. And yet we slap blatant, omnipresent cheaters with 50 game suspensions? Manny Ramirez returns to Mannywood and is marketed just as feverishly as before his suspension? There is no consistency in Major League Baseball.

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Tom's obviously the best pitcher in the history of the Mets' organization. 

17. Albert Pujols-1B

No player has had a better start to their career. In his first eight seasons, "The Machine" never had less than 32 homers. He never had less than 103 RBI. He never had an OPS lower than .955, and he never hit below .314. During that time period he hit over 40 homers four times, and had over 120 RBI five times. Don't forget .330 or better five times, either. 

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At this point, Alex Rodriguez could be accused of drowing puppies in a bucket of children's tears, and it would barely register on my radar screen.

Nothing I hear about this guy can shock me.

Since it came to light in February that A-Rod used performance enhancing drugs from 2001 to 2003, he has been made a pariah, representing everything that is wrong with professional baseball. He was supposed to be baseball's last remaining light, the golden boy who was supposed to break Barry Bonds' home run record without the help of a single supplement. Many considered the steroid era in baseball to be over - all the heavy hitters had been chased from the game, and there was a new policy in place to punish those who did test positive. The new era of hitters (Pujols, Howard, Ortiz, Texiera) were doing it without steroids, and A-Rod was supposed to be the poster child.

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The NL is “stuck” with Lance Berkman, who’s having a heck of a year, instead of Albert Pujols, whom NL skipper Clint Hurdle had to hand-pick after fans passed on him. Pujols, for those of you who have been asleep since 2001, has been arguably the best hitter in baseball since then. And Ryan Braun’s a whiz with the bat—when he makes contact—but not such a great defender in left. Might you want to shift Nate McLouth, a reserve who normally plays in center, to right instead, since Nate’s OPS is 16 points higher even than slugger Braun?

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ne, that might make him an enticing trade commodity when Soriano returns.

The other injury was to Albert Pujols, one of the best hitters around. A friend emailed me about my Manny Ramirez paean a few days back to counter that Pujols was a far better hitter, and my response to him (both in the blog post and now) is that Pujols hasn't had the longevity of Manny, and is just starting to show the wear and tear of playing baseball every day. Pujols has been one of the top five hitters in baseball since he burst onto the scene in 2001, with 5 straight years of .300/.400/.500 ball (including four straight .300/.400/.600 years). That's only seven years, however, and Manny's been doing his magic consistently for almost fifteen.

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These are amazing numbers for their careers, and both should add on to them in the near future. Albert Pujols has some pretty eye-popping statistics, better than Manny, but he's only been doing this Superman act for half as long.

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Louis Cardinals

How badly will Albert Pujols elbow problems affect his performance?

The fact that he is even attempting to play is incredible as the pain Pujols is reportedly feeling in his

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ty years ago, most players made so little they often had to get part time jobs in the off season.

Albert Pujols’ elbow continues to be a problem and he seems intent on playing through it. For those of you who read Buzz Bissinger’s 3 Nights in August, you know that Pujols suffered from elbow problems then and played through them even though he had to give the ball to some one else to throw in from the outfield. There is no doubt that he has a high tolerance for pain. At this point it seems that Tommy John surgery is inevitable, the only question is when. Tony LaRussa has implemented his own set of rules to protect Pujols as much as possible and delay surgery until after the season if possible. With the outlook for the Cardinals this season ranging from bleak to dismal, why not go ahead and get the surgery now? St. Louis is clearly moving towards rebuilding and it doesn’t seem to make much sense for Pujols to endure the kind of pain he must be feeling and risk further injury and potentially missing a significant portion of next season when the Cardinals might have a better shot at contention.

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make a move or two).  The Cardinals are up first.  This team is a long shot but they have Albert Pujols and I don’t ever like to count him out.  The Cards have a solid line-up with Pujols, Troy Glaus and Chris Duncan in the middle, they have Izturis and Kennedy at the top and Molina and Ankiel in the back of the line-up.  The problem with this team is their starting rotation.  Adam Wainwright, Brandon Looper, Joel Pineiro, Matt Clement (yes, that Matt Clement) and Anthony Reyes just don’t do it for me.  This team better hope Chris Carpenter (don’t forget about him) comes back ASAP and can re-gain his form.  That is the reason I won’t count them out,

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gue, who will lead at what category, who will win the awards, and who are the flops.  Enjoy!1B Albert Pujols2B Chase Utlery3B David WrightSS Hanley RamirezC Geovany SotoOF Carlos LeeOF Alfonso SorianoOF Matt HolidaySP Johan SantanaSP Roy OswaltSP Jake PeavyCLOSER Billy Wagner or Bob Howry or Kerry Wood

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